Explore strategies to support the language needs of learners

With increased migration and refugee flows, most teachers are encountering increasingly diverse students in their mainstream classrooms. This course is designed for teachers at all levels, working with language learners across the curriculum.

This course will give you new insight into the different aspects of language, the language learning process and the demands of different curricular areas. It will enable you to enrich your daily practice to ensure the needs of the language learners are met.

0:02Skip to 0 minutes and 2 secondsCATHERINE DOHERTY: The 21st century has seen a lot of change and mobility. So even if you stay in the same place, things might be changing around you.

0:10Skip to 0 minutes and 10 secondsSALLY ZACHARIAS: For teachers, the most obvious change may be the new types of students in your classrooms-- students with unfamiliar names and different accents who are learning the language at the same time they're learning the curriculum content. How can you support these students' language learning in your classroom?

0:38Skip to 0 minutes and 38 secondsCATHERINE DOHERTY: This is not a course for language specialists. It's for mainstream teachers in school settings who want practical ideas on how to enrich their classroom practises with language learning strategies.

0:50Skip to 0 minutes and 50 secondsSALLY ZACHARIAS: We start by stretching the definition of language. It's more than just grammar, pronunciation, and spelling. And each curriculum area creates its own particular language demands.

1:02Skip to 1 minute and 2 secondsCATHERINE DOHERTY: We'll introduce some of the deep principles of language learning that you can apply when you design classroom activities.

1:08Skip to 1 minute and 8 secondsSALLY ZACHARIAS: We spend some time thinking about particular strategies to support and develop students' reading, writing, listening, and speaking, and how these skills can work together.

1:19Skip to 1 minute and 19 secondsCATHERINE DOHERTY: We also spend some time thinking about every day classroom talk and how this can be tailored to better support the participation of your language learner.

1:28Skip to 1 minute and 28 secondsSALLY ZACHARIAS: Every teacher is a language teacher to some degree. We believe that a little knowledge about how language works, how languages are learned, and how knowledge is built in and through language can make a huge difference.

1:41Skip to 1 minute and 41 secondsCATHERINE DOHERTY: This course will help you develop background understandings and practical strategies to do this aspect of your job well. This investment in your own learning will benefit both first and second language in your classrooms.